worked my A$$ off this week and no change.... argh......

i woke up early and did 30 minutes of either cardio or strength training in the am four days this week. went to the gym and took an hour long step class after work two times this week. ate at the low to mid range of points and no change (the second time i weight myself this morning - the first time showed that i gained half a pound ). what am i doing wrong?!?!?!??!

Nothing...stick with it....It takes more than a week for your body to kick into weight loss mode....

Sounds like you are doing great....just keep up with it!

maybe i should clarify something. i have been been doing step 2-3 times a week for years - i just stepped it up a notch (no pun intended) by adding the morning routine as well because i have not been seeing much change at all on the scale with just the pm workouts. apparently, this is not helping muc either. argh.... so frustrated!!! FH wanted to lose weight and all he did was switch from drinking sprite to diet coke and lost 20 pounds. what the *@^&?????????? sorry, just extremely frustrated today.

my clothes fit pretty much the same. i eat lots of veggies, perhaps a bit too many carbs but i'm trying to reduce them. here is a typical day in the life of sandy's stomach:

breakfast: 1 cup cereal with 1/2 cup soy milk and 1/2 cup strawberries or other fruit.
lunch: salad (spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes) and tuna salad (made with very little light mayo)
snack: piece of fruit and/or 94% fat free microwave popcorn (usually 2-3 cups)
dinner: stir-fry with veggies and tofu or veggie frittata
dessert: 1/2 cup low fat ice cream with drizzle of chocolate syrup.

sure i cheat every now and then, but not often. what is going on?!?!?! what can i do to jump start my stagnant body??

Are you lifting weights? And about how many calories are you eating? Try to figure that out.

Here's a general guide to use:

If you're inactive (which you're not), multiply your weight by 13. Eat this many calories.

If you're moderately active, multiply by 14.

If you're very active (cardio and weight lifting 4 - 5 times a week) multiply by 15.

So I'm very active, weigh 125, and eat around 1800 calories. That is to MAINTAIN what I have. If I wanted to lose weight, I'd experiment with eating 100 calories less per day for a week or two and see what happens. If that didn't work, I'd go lower by another 100 calories.

And remember, if you work out REALLY hard and you're not overweight to begin with (you only have about 5 - 10 lbs to lose) it's going to take you a while to lose that weight. I don't know how much you want to lose, but still, if you're doing things right you aren't going to lose more than a couple or three lbs. a week. And you've only been working out hard for a week. Give it time! You're doing great!

I see two mistakes in your diet. What is a fritata???? What kind of bread is that? Cut the ice cream out of your diet. There is way toooooo much sugar in ice cream, especially low fat ice cream. If I ate that at night all my gains would be a loss. Have portein for breakfast.

This is just my advise, hope I don't sound mean or anything

Edited to say that if you are working out, what you eat before and after makes a big difference too.

continue, DONT GIVE UP!!!!!
Are you eating very well . If you are not eating healthy, that will make all the difference. Drink a lot of water too

a frittata is like an omlet - but i use either egg whites or egg beaters.

and as for the ice cream - 1/2 cupt is really not that much and honestly, if i don't eat it, i will eat tons of crap to satisfy that craving. i know its bad but trust me, not having it is worse.

thanks for your kind words and advice... maybe i just need to increase my strength training a bit more, or increase the intensity of my workouts.

ETS: what kinds of foods are good to eat before and after a workout???? are there any 'high protein' cereals??

I just found a high protein cereal. I bought a case of it! Here is the web site. www.organicmilling.com It doesn't taste great, but it does the job. It is called High-low. 15 grams of soy protein. almost no sugar and just enough carbs. You should try it. If you don't like it, send it to me!!

The best time to eat sugar is in the morning and after a workout. Also, eat something high in protein (20-30g)and a decent amount of good carbs (20g), some sugar is good too after a workout.

Thats how I have been eating. If I stick to this I always see progress.

Ooooh I'll have to look for that cereal! I eat cereal every morning.

i am also going to try the go-lean cereals from kashi. i just remembered them and i always see them at trader joe's.

thanks for your help ladies!

The hi-lo cereal is good. Another good cereal is the 'Atkins' flakes, tastes similar to Total. Also, you might try switching to 'unsweetened' soy milk. I drink the Vanilla flavored 'un-sweetened' soy and do mot missed the sugars at all.

It's really hard to shake a body out of a plataue, especially when you are doing so good already.

I lost 30 lbs recen;ty and got stuck in a plataue for a whole month. I increased my weight training and added running to my cardio. It has really worked I'm down 5 more lbs and my clothes are all getting way to big.

Good luck and keep up the hard worlk.

Marcia